L'angel rebel
by Egs
Summary: Ever wonder why Sabrina's friend Valerie was so anxious? It's like she's been abused. My story explores what's happened to her. Also, Aunt Zelda is a high school chemistry teacher in this universe. Reviews and comments are welcome!
1. Chapter 1

L'angel rebel

It'll never happen again, Valerie thought to herself as she walked into her last class of the day, chemistry.

Chemistry was her favorite class. Her teacher, Ms. Spellman, had a flair for experiments and could make even the most boring aspects of the subject interesting.

"Goggles on!" Ms. Spellman announced brightly. "We are going to explore how different elements react in water."

Valerie worked alone, as usual. That didn't bother her though. She preferred to be by herself. Less chance of being hurt that way.

"Great job, Val," Ms. Spellman said as she walked around. She put her hand on Valerie's back. Val winced but not enough for anyone to notice.

At the end of class, Ms. Spellman asked if she would stay after a minute.

"My niece is moving in with my sister and I next week," Ms. Spellman told her. "I was wondering if you would show her around when she gets here? I think you two will get along great. She loves science too!"

"Sure," Val agreed. "I'd love to."

Ms. Spellman watched the thin, pale girl gather her notebook. Most students were only in her class because they needed the science credit, but Valerie genuinely seemed to enjoy it. She'd overheard her say that she went trick-or-treating as Marie Curie when she was a kid.

Was it her imagination or was Valerie thinner and paler than usual? She had never had the rosiest coloring or much meat on her bones, but now she seemed to almost look sick.

"Valerie, honey, wait a minute." Ms. Spellman walked over to the door and closed it. Valerie's heart began to race.

"Is everything okay? You are looking awfully pale and sick nowadays."

Valerie looked away then looked back at the concerned face of her teacher. "Yes, I'm fine."

"Are you sure? You can trust me, you know."

Valerie knew that. Ms. Spellman was by far her favorite teacher. She was so dedicated to her students and helping them learn. There were several times she'd almost told her her secret.

Valerie looked into Ms. Spellman's worried green eyes and smiled. "Yes. Everything is fine."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

That was close, Valerie thought as she walked to her locker. Most of the other kids were gone by now. Off to sports practice or home. Valerie put her books into her backpack. She had a lot of homework to do.

She walked to the city library where it was nice and quiet and began to slog away on her math homework. She really detested the Pythagorean Theorum.

She at last finished at about 5:00, which was perfect timing. She went back to school and waited for the practices to be over. When she saw kids streaming out of the gym she snuck in and. She went to her locker and put her finished homework away. It was dark and cold and Valerie was famished. She hadn't eaten anything since lunch.

When at last the last student had left and the coaches had locked up, Valerie began rummaging through the garbage. She fished out every last can and bottle, flattened them and stuck them in her backpack.

"Good hull," she said to herself. She stuck her gum in the doorjamb and went to the nearest store. Her treasure of discarded bottles and cans was worth a whole $1.50.

She returned to the school and bought a bag of potato chips and fruit snacks from the vending machine. "Good dinner," Valerie thought to herself as she made her way to the teacher's lounge. She tried the door, finding it unlocked. That meant the custodian hadn't been in to clean yet.

She sat on the couch, doing the rest of her homework. When the distant sound of a vacuum warned her the custodian was coming, she quickly shoved her books in her bag, hit the light switch and hid behind the couch.

After the cursory vacuum around the floor, Valerie knew she was safe for the night. She rinsed her hair in the sink, using hand soap as shampoo, then gave herself a sponge bath with paper towels.

"Ahhh….," she sighed as she stretched out on the couch and fell asleep.

The idea of sleeping at the school had occurred to her a few days before. She was sleeping in an abandoned church basement, scared of the rats and drug dealers in the area. Who knew when they would come back. Valerie had been curled up in a corner, shivering and hungry when school hit her. Nobody used the school all night. It had bathrooms, heat and lights.

She went to school and found the doors locked. Desperate and freezing, she used one of her hair pins to try to pick the lock and to her amazement it worked. She remembered seeing a couch in the teachers' lounge and managed to pick the lock on that door also. Curled up on the couch, she'd fell into the deepest sleep in months.

Valerie always slept with the blinds open so the sun would awaken her. The last thing she wanted was to be caught. That would lead to questions she didn't want to answer and places she didn't want to go.

In the morning, she brushed her teeth and removed all traces she'd even been there. Then she would find some remote corner of the school to hide in until it was safe to come in and eat breakfast. She received free breakfasts and lunch so her belly was reasonably full during the day.

Valerie had a routine to this. She had two outfits she kept in her locker so she could wear something different every day. She knew who to sit with at lunch because they never finished all of their meal and she could eat it or squirrel it away for later. As for staying clean, on gym days she had to shower and on the other days she took a sponge bath in the sink. She lived in fear of stinking but nobody had ever said anything.

Valerie's body had different ideas. Potato chips filled her up but they weren't very nutritious. On days she had gym, she was always ravenous. She had even stolen food from a store one day she was so hungry. Her body began to rebel. She came down with a horrible cough and was as pale as paper.

She sat listlessly in chemistry one day, about two weeks after she started living in the school. She tried to make herself care about the noble gases but couldn't quite muster any interest. Her head was throbbing and all she wanted to do was sleep. Her stomach growled loudly. She kept checking the clock, calculating how long it would be before she could start scavenging for bottles. If she hadn't been so preoccupied, she would have noticed the looks of mounting concern Ms. Spellman kept throwing her way.

When the bell rang, Ms. Spellman gestured for her to remain. Valerie felt her heart beating and her resistance crumbling. Give me the strength not to tell her, she thought. Her back began to throb.

"Valerie," Ms. Spellman began, "can you explain this?" She showed her the test the class had taken the previous day. Instead of her usual A, a D stared back at her. Valerie stared at it in disbelief and sighed. It was hard to be worried about chemistry when you were sick, starving and exhausted.

"I'm sorry. I guess I just didn't study for it like I should have."

Her teacher took a hard look at the child in front of her. Valerie had lost weight, there was no denying that. Instead of the healthy skinny she had previously been, she now looked gaunt. Her dark eyes were too big for her face, her skin pale as paper. Her clothes hung off of her; clothes Ms. Spellman could tell had not been washed in a while. Valerie had always had an air of fragility about her but now it was more like desperation.

Valerie coughed, a deep hacking cough that concerned her teacher even more. It sounded almost like pneumonia.

"Valerie, honey, I'm worried about you. Is there anything you want to tell me?"

Valerie bit her lip and looked in the beautiful green eyes of her favorite teacher. "No, ma'am. Everything is fine."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Valerie was sick and she knew it. She tried desperately to find enough bottles and cans to buy a cheap bottle of cough syrup, but it was impossible. To do so would mean not eating dinner for three days and she was too hungry all the time as it was. Plus she had nowhere to store three days worth of bottles.

"Ew," Libby commented at lunch. Valerie was loitering near the garbage cans, no longer caring who saw her. She caught Libby's unopened packet of carrots before the fell in the can.

"Eating out of the garbage, Val? No wonder you smell like that," Libby commented.

Val didn't care. She tried to keep her clothes clean, rinsing her socks and underwear in the sink every night. But she only had one pair of jeans and two shirts that she switched every other day. And given how she had to sleep in her jeans too, they were starting to get kind of fragrant. Food was the most important thing in her life now.

Valerie tried to do her homework that night but couldn't focus. She coughed, bring up a wad of green gunk. Her head was throbbing. She just couldn't make herself care about the chemistry problems in front of her.

"Ms. Spellman will understand," she said to herself as put everything in her backpack. "She knows I haven't been feeling great."

Valerie fell asleep as soon as the custodian was gone. She felt like she could sleep forever. Her stomach was emptier than usual; she had only found enough cans for a candy bar. She had to be careful about scavenging food too; teachers were beginning to look at her with too much concern and not just Ms. Spellman.

"It'll all be better in the morning," Val thought as she drifted off. "It always is."

"I'm so worried about this girl in my chemistry class," Ms. Zelda Spellman told her sister Hilda that same evening. "She's so thin and she's sick too. Her grades keep dropping but she won't tell me why. One day when I touched her back she winced. Today I overheard students talking about her taking food out of the trash. Something is very wrong."

"Did you try the truth spell?" Hilda asked, conjuring some wine.

"I tried but it didn't work. That is another strange thing," Zelda said, her fair brows knit together in worry.

"C'mon, Zelly, lets take a look at where she is now. It's probably some silly teenage thing." Hilda guided her sister into the kitchen, where they mixed up the potion on Zelda's Lab Top.

As magenta fog poured up from the beaker, they began to chant:

" _Eye of tiger, stars of bright_

 _Show us where Valerie Birkhead_

 _Is this night."_

In the mist, a picture of the sound asleep Valerie appeared. Zelda gasped. "She's sleeping on the couch in the faculty lounge at school! I have to do something!"

Hilda grabbed her sister as she charged for the door. "It's late, Zelda. You said she was sick. Let her sleep and go get her in the morning."

Zelda agreed to do so.

At six o'clock the next morning, just as the sun began to rise, Zelda Spellman was at the high school faculty lounge. She looked at the too pale, too thin face of the child sleeping on the couch. Valerie curled up under a thin blanket, wearing a sweatshirt and jeans that she had worn every other day. Zelda resisted the temptation to look through her backpack. She looked like a porcelain doll.

Zelda gently placed a hand on Valerie's back. She winced in her sleep. Zelda shook her gently. "Valerie, honey, wake up. It's Ms. Spellman."

Valerie's eyes fluttered open. The first thing she saw was her chemistry teacher's worried face.

"Ms. Spellman!" she gasped, bolting up. "Don't tell anyone! Please!"

Zelda sat down beside the terrified girl. "Honey, are you all right? Why are you sleeping in here?"

Valerie bit her lip. She began to cry, coughing up phlegm as she sobbed.

Zelda pulled the sobbing girl to her. She tensed up in her arms when Zelda's hands touched her back. This time Zelda was not going to ignore it.

"Let me see," Zelda ordered, turning her.

Valerie was too tired and defeated to protest. She turned around and lifted up her shirt.

Zelda gasped at the sight. Valerie's back was a crisscross of scars. There were some healed, some obviously fairly fresh, just beginning to lose their scabs.

"My God, Valerie! Who did this to you?" she demanded.

Valerie began to cry again. Zelda helped her up, careful of her back.

"Come on, honey. I'm taking you to my house."

"Your house?" Valerie asked through her tears. She reached for her backpack. Ms. Spellman took it from her.

"Yes, my house. You need some good food and rest. And medicine for your cough."

Valerie was both relieved and scared. She was relieved to be getting help, but terrified of having to tell Ms. Spellman what was going on.

Ms. Spellman's sister met them at the door. "Breakfast is ready. Eat as much as you want."

Hilda and Zelda's eyes met as Valerie began to devour a plate of waffles and glass of orange juice.

 _What happened to this girl?_ Hilda's blue eyes asked.

 _Don't ask her right now,_ Zelda's green eyes answered. _Let her eat. Look at her. She's starving._

"Slow down," Hilda said. "Nobody is going to take it away from you."

Valerie slowed down marginally.

"Here," Zelda held out a coffee mug to her. "This will help your cough." Hilda and Zelda exchanged meaningful glances.

Valerie sighed happily when she finished her mountain of waffles. "Thank you," she smiled.

"I'm staying home today," Zelda told her. "You need to get cleaned up, then we can talk."

Valerie sighed. She knew this was coming but she was absolutely dreading it.

"Here, you can wear these," Zelda said as she led her to the bathroom. She gave her a pair of clean sweatpants and T-shirt. "They'll probably be a bit big on you, but they're clean. Hop in the shower and take as long as you need."

The warm stream of water was straight out of heaven. After washing in the sink or under the stinging needles of water in the gym showers, a warm shower and hot breakfast were luxuries. Valerie washed her hair twice and scrubbed every inch of her body three times. It felt wonderful.

"Feel better?" Zelda asked as she came downstairs. "You look better."

Valerie hacked up some green phlegm. "Yes, much."

"Good," Ms. Spellman said as she led the skinny girl to the dining room table. "Here, I want to put something on your back."

Valerie felt like she should resist but then it crumbled. She was sick of hiding, sick of lying and sick of running. She wanted the only person in the world who seem to care to help her.

"Wow," Valerie exclaimed when she saw the Lab Top. "Can we do experiments on this?"

"Later," her teacher replied. "Sit down and lift up your shirt."

Valerie didn't wear a bra and it was easy to see why. Some of the cuts were infected, painful oozing sores. Valerie flinched as Zelda gently applied a damp rag to her back then relaxed. Whatever she put on actually felt good. It made her feel relaxed and her back not hurt.

"Zelly, have you seen-" Hilda began as she walked into the room. "What the _hell_ happened to you?" she interrupted herself when she saw Val's back.

"Later, Hilda," her sister snapped at her. "Let me get it cleaned up, then we will talk to her."

When Zelda got her back cleaned up, they brought her into the living room and gave her another cup of tea. "We don't want to hurt you, honey," Zelda said as they sat on either said of Valerie. "We want to help you, but we can't if we don't know what happened. Please, are you ready to tell us?"

Valerie's dark eyes met Zelda's green ones. She nodded and began her story.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Valerie opened her mouth to begin telling Zelda and Hilda her story. Then she closed it. She tried again and shook her head. Then she coughed up more gunk.

"Just start wherever you're comfortable," Zelda coaxed, handing her a tissue and cup of tea.

Tears streamed down Valerie's pale cheeks. She gasped for breath, trying to calm down. She only succeeded in coughing.

Zelda stroked her dark hair. "It's okay, honey. We aren't going to hurt you or judge you. Calm down."

Zelda kept her hand on Valerie's back and that seemed to help calm her down. Zelda and Hilda's eyes met. They strongly suspected what had happened.

"Ok, I'm ready," Valerie said after a minute. Zelda and Hilda waited patiently. They knew not to rush her.

"My stepdad did that to my back," she began. "Nothing I did was ever good enough for him. At first it would be something like forgetting to turn the TV off. He would just hit me with his hand. Then he'd say I wasn't helping my mom enough and I'd get hit. One time, Mom said I didn't have to do the dishes that night because I had a big math test the next day. He got so mad at both of us. He said when he told me to do something, I had to do it. That's when he started hitting my back with a belt."

Thunder rumbled and lightning flashed across the sky. Valerie looked outside, surprised. "Strange time of year for a thunderstorm isn't it? The sun's out."

The sisters exchanged glances. They tried to keep their anger in check around mortals but were unsuccessful this time.

"Keep going, honey," Zelda said encouragingly.

"Mom started staying away. I never saw him hit her, but he was always yelling at her. She would go to the bar and have a few drinks before coming home, which meant I was there with him more. He came into my room, and…." Valerie trailed off and began crying again. This time she was sobbing so hard she began to choke. Zelda held her until she calmed down. Another clap of thunder rolled by.

"It went on for a few weeks. Every little thing seemed to set him off. Then one night, he tried and couldn't. It was my birthday. I pushed him off and he actually got off. That's the night I ran away. I was lucky that night, but I knew it wouldn't last. I was sick of getting beaten and….you know…"

The loudest clap of thunder Valerie ever heard came crashing through. She jumped, startled.

"Where was your mother?" Hilda asked angrily. "Didn't she try to stop him?"

"Yeah, she tried but usually she couldn't. He'd push her away, say I deserved it. I don't think she knew about the other thing, though."

"He should be turned into a cockroach," Hilda said furiously. "C'mon, Zelly."

Zelda's scientific mind was in a whirl. "Valerie, how old are you?"

"Sixteen."

"When did you turn sixteen?"

"About a month ago. The day I ran away."

Hilda and Zelda looked at each other.

"It was so strange," Valerie continued. "He kept trying and trying but I kept pushing him off. And he couldn't do it. He didn't hit me that time either, but he tried. He got so mad he left. I decided then and there that was the last time he was going to hurt me. I packed some clothes and left. It was so weird though. After I was gone, I found a little travel bag with toiletries in it in my backpack. I wonder if my mom put it in there. I thought of sleeping in the school one night when I was in a church basement. Nobody was there at night, it's warm and had bathrooms. I picked the door with a hair pin."

Val stopped and wiped the tears from her eyes. "I won't go back. If you call the police or my mom, I'll take off again. He isn't going to hurt me ever again. I'd rather keep eating out of thrash then go back."

Zelda took Valerie's thin, pale hand. "Don't worry about that, honey. We wouldn't do that to you."

"She's exhausted, Zelly," Hilda jumped in. "How about getting some real sleep, Val? You can use Sabrina's room."

"Our niece who's coming next week," Zelda explained. "You're sick and you need some rest. Sleep as long as you need."

"What are we going to do?" Hilda asked Zelda after Valerie went upstairs. "No wonder she ran away! We have to help her! And I still want to turn her stepfather into a cockroach!"

"No cockroaches!" Zelda said. "Did you hear what she said about him not being able to hurt her on her sixteenth birthday?"

Hilda stopped her rant. "Oh yes. I was just so angry about what happened to her I didn't process it. Do you think….?"

"And things appeared in her backpack when she needed them. And the truth spell didn't work on her. And she was able to pick the door locks with a bobby pin?" Zelda continued thoughtfully. "What does that sound like to you?"

Hilda sat down, stunned. Her sister was right. "Valerie is a witch!"


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Valerie stretched out on the twin bed. The pile of blankets was wonderful. Whatever Ms. Spellman put in the tea was helping her cough. She curled up under the blankets, like a caterpillar in its cocoon.

"Ah…." she sighed. "This is great."

She drifted off to sleep. She didn't know how long she slept, as there was no clock.

"Hey, you're on my bed," a man's voice said in her ear. "Get up. Hilda and Zelda want to talk to you."

Valerie opened her eyes, thick with sleep. "C'mon sleeping beauty, up and at 'em," said the same voice. She looked around but the only other living creature in the room was a black cat. It was on the window seat, looking at her sternly.

Valerie stretched. She felt so much better. The sleep really helped her cold.

"Hey, honey, how are you feeling?" Zelda asked her when she came downstairs. "You look better. Almost like your old self."

"Much better, thank you," Val answered.

"Hilda and I have talked it over," Zelda continued. "We know you can't go back to your home, and we never would ask you to. We know you aren't safe there. So we were wondering, how would you feel us about being your foster parents?"

"Don't we have to go to court for that?" Valerie asked. The thought of seeing her stepfather terrified her, the thought of seeing her mother broke her heart. She just wanted the whole ordeal to go away.

Hilda and Zelda looked at each other. "Well, yes. I took pictures of your back when I was putting lotion on it. We will get a lawyer. Chances are very good you won't have to see your family."

"I can't imagine they'd care," Valerie said. For the first time there was bitterness in her voice. "I've been gone more than a month and they never came looking for me. Sick, starving and sleeping at school and they don't even care." Valerie threw her hands up and a clap of thunder shook the house. She jumped. "What is with all the thunder?"

"Valerie," Zelda said very gently. "We need to talk to you about something. Do you know anything about your biological father?"

Valerie shook her head. "I don't even know his name. My mom never, ever wanted to talk about him. She would get upset. My stepdad said he was my father now and not to ask questions about him. So I didn't."

"You never saw a picture or looked him up _anywhere_?" Hilda pressed.

Valerie shook her head. "No. Never."

Hilda and Zelda looked at each other again. Valerie noticed they were doing that a lot. She suspected they could communicate in a way she didn't understand. She wanted to know as she knew it had to do with her.

"Have you seen your birth certificate?" Zelda asked.

"No. Why does this matter? I never met my real father and I certainly don't need to now."

"Valerie, we have something to tell you. It's going to seem strange, but trust us. We aren't going to hurt you."

Valerie paled again. "You want me to leave, right?"

"No, no no no!" Zelda and Hilda said together. "No. Valerie….you're a witch. That is why we wanted to know if you knew who your father is."

"I'm a witch?" Valerie repeated in disbelief. "Like Samantha on _Bewitched_?"

"Great show," Hilda said. "Little fake though. No self respecting witch would have let Darren suppress her like that."

"Hilda, please," Zelda said, annoyed. "I'm a witch too, Valerie. Hilda's a witch and our niece Sabrina who is coming next week is a witch although she doesn't know it yet."

"Why are you messing with me?" Valerie asked. The look of shock and hurt on her face greatly upset Zelda.

"We're not messing with you, honey. I know what you've been through and I can't imagine how you're feeling. We are witches."

"That's why your creepy stepdad couldn't hurt you on your sixteenth birthday," Hilda chimed in. "A witch comes into her powers at sixteen. So when you pushed him off, he had to stay off. You can't rape a witch."

Valerie got up and paced around the kitchen. She clawed her dark hair with her thin hands. Her mind was racing. "It's true he couldn't hurt me that night. But that's the night I left. Who knows if he would've next time?"

Zelda looked at Hilda and shrugged. "We'll have to prove it, I guess. Would you like some tea?"

Valerie nodded. Zelda pointed at the table and with a flash of purple sparks, a steaming cup of tea appeared. Valerie's eyes about popped out of her head. Hilda helped her to the table.

"Sugar?" Hilda asked and zapped some up.

Valerie was so pale Zelda was sure she was going to faint. "A witch," Valerie murmured. "If you can do that, why are you teaching high school chemistry?"

"I love to inspire the young," Zelda answered. "There is another realm, a supernatural one. But Hilda and I have lived here for over two hundred years."

"How old are you?" asked the stunned Valerie.

"Oh, we're a lot older than you think," Hilda answered brightly. "I just turned six hundred and forty. Zelda is-"

"Never mind how old I am!" snapped Zelda. She took Valerie's hand. "Honey, our petitioning for custody of you is going to be in the Other Realm Court. I took pictures of your back to use in court. I hope you don't mind, but I know they like visuals."

An image of a cockroach flashed through Valerie's mind. "Could you actually turn my stepdad into a cockroach?"

"Oh yes!" Hilda said cheerfully. "In fact, I just wanted to do that and skip the court hassle but _somebody_ -"she tossed a pointed look at her sister, "wouldn't let me."

A witch, Valerie thought, I'm a witch. That's why he couldn't hurt me. "Do you think my mother is a witch too?"

"We don't know. That is why we wanted to know who your biological father is," Zelda said. "Being a witch is genetic. Usually at least one of the parents is a witch, but sometimes it skips a generation. In very rare cases, it can happen centuries after the last known witch in the family."

"Can I fly? How do I use my powers? What-?"

"Slow down," Zelda laughed. "We'll teach you everything you need to know. You're in good hands."

Valerie smiled. She knew her days of being a punching bag were over.


End file.
